Subscribe to Our Mailing List

Encyclical of the Eastern Patriarchs, 1848

A Reply to the Epistle of Pope Pius IX, "to the Easterns"

To All the Bishops Everywhere, Beloved in the Holy Ghost, Our Venerable,
Most Dear Brethren; and to their Most Pious Clergy; and to All
the Genuine Orthodox Sons of the One, Holy, Catholic and
Apostolic Church: Brotherly Salutation in the Holy Spirit, and
Every Good From God, and Salvation.

The holy, evangelical and divine Gospel of
Salvation should be set forth by all in its original simplicity,
and should evermore be believed in its unadulterated purity, even
the same as it was revealed to His holy Apostles by our Savior,
who for this very cause, descending from the bosom of God the
Father, made Himself of no reputation and took upon Him the
form of a servant (Phil. ii. 7); even the same, also, as
those Apostles, who were ear and eye witnesses, sounded it forth,
like clear-toned trumpets, to all that are under the sun (for their
sound is gone out into all lands, and their words into the ends
of the world);and, last of all, the very same as the
many great and glorious Fathers of the Catholic Church in all
parts of the earth, who heard those Apostolic voices, both by
their synodical and their individual teachings handed it down to
all everywhere, and even unto us. But the Prince of Evil, that
spiritual enemy of man's salvation, as formerly in Eden, craftily
assuming the pretext of profitable counsel, he made man to become
a transgressor of the divinely-spoken command. So in the
spiritual Eden, the Church of God, he has from time to time
beguiled many; and, mixing the deleterious drugs of heresy with
the clear streams of orthodox doctrine, gives of the potion to
drink to many of the innocent who live unguardedly, not giving
earnest heed to the things they have heard (Heb. ii. 10), and
to what they have been told by their fathers (Deut. xxxii.
7), in accordance with the Gospel and in agreement with the
ancient Doctors; and who, imagining that the preached and written
Word of the LORD and the perpetual witness of His Church are not
sufficient for their souls' salvation, impiously seek out
novelties, as we change the fashion of our garments, embracing a
counterfeit of the evangelical doctrine.

2. Hence have arisen manifold and monstrous
heresies, which the Catholic Church, even from her infancy, taking
unto her the whole armor of God, and assuming the sword of the
Spirit, which is the Word of God (Eph. vi. 13-17), has been
compelled to combat. She has triumphed over all unto this day,
and she will triumph for ever, being manifested as mightier and
more illustrious after each struggle.

3. Of these heresies, some already
have entirely failed, some are in decay, some have wasted away,
some yet flourish in a greater or less degree vigorous until the
time of their return to the Faith, while others are reproduced to
run their course from their birth to their destruction. For being
the miserable cogitations and devices of miserable men, both one
and the other, struck with the thunderbolt of the anathema of the
seven Ecumenical Councils, shall vanish away, though they may
last a thousand years; for the orthodoxy of the Catholic and
Apostolic Church, by the living Word of God, alone endures for
ever, according to the infallible promise of the LORD: the
gates of hell shall not prevail against it (Matt. xviii. 18).
Certainly, the mouths of ungodly and heretical men, however bold,
however plausible and fair-speaking, however smooth they may be,
will not prevail against the orthodox doctrine winning, its way
silently and without noise. But, wherefore doth the way of the
wicked prosper? (Jer. xii. 1.) Why are the ungodly exalted
and lifted up as the cedars of Lebanon (Ps. xxxvii. 35), to
defile the peaceful worship of God? The reason of this is
mysterious, and the Church, though daily praying that this cross,
this messenger of Satan, may depart from her, ever hears from the
Lord: My grace is sufficient for thee, my strength is
made perfect in weakness (2. Cor. xii. 9). Wherefore she
gladly glories in her infirmities, that the power of Christ
may rest upon her, and that they which are approved may be made
manifest (1. Cor. x. 19).

4. Of these heresies diffused, with what
sufferings the LORD hath known, over a great part of the world,
was formerly Arianism, and at present is the Papacy. This, too,
as the former has become extinct, although now flourishing, shall
not endure, but pass away and be cast down, and a great voice
from heaven shall cry: It is cast down (Rev. xii. 10).

5. The new doctrine, that "the Holy
Ghost proceedeth from the Father and the Son," is contrary
to the memorable declaration of our LORD, emphatically made
respecting it: which proceedeth from the Father (John xv.
26), and contrary to the universal Confession of the Catholic
Church as witnessed by the seven Ecumenical Councils, uttering
"which proceedeth from the Father." (Symbol of Faith).

i. This novel opinion destroys the oneness
from the One cause, and the diverse origin of the Persons of
the Blessed Trinity, both of which are witnessed to in the
Gospel.

ii. Even into the divine Hypostases or
Persons of the Trinity, of equal power and equally to be
adored, it introduces diverse and unequal relations, with a
confusion or commingling of them.

iii. It reproaches as imperfect, dark, and
difficult to be understood, the previous Confession of the
One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church.

iv. It censures the holy Fathers of the
first Ecumenical Synod of Nicea and of the second Ecumenical
Synod at Constantinople, as imperfectly expressing what
relates to the Son and Holy Ghost, as if they had been silent
respecting the peculiar property of each Person of the
Godhead, when it was necessary that all their divine
properties should be expressed against the Arians and
Macedonians.

v. It reproaches the Fathers of the third,
fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh Ecumenical Councils, which
had published over the world a divine Creed, perfect and
complete, and interdicted under dread anathemas and penalties
not removed, all addition, or diminution, or alteration, or
variation in the smallest particular of it, by themselves or
any whomsoever. Yet was this quickly to be corrected and
augmented, and consequently the whole theological doctrine of
the Catholic Fathers was to be subjected to change, as if,
forsooth, a new property even in regard to the three Persons
of the Blessed Trinity had been revealed.

vi. It clandestinely found an entrance at
first in the Churches of the West, "a wolf in sheep's
clothing," that is, under the signification not of procession,
according to the Greek meaning in the Gospel and the
Creed, but under the signification of mission, as Pope
Martin explained it to the Confessor Maximus, and as
Anastasius the Librarian explained it to John VIII.

vii. It exhibits incomparable boldness,
acting without authority, and forcibly puts a false stamp
upon the Creed, which is the common inheritance of
Christianity.

viii. It has introduced huge disturbances
into the peaceful Church of God, and divided the nations.

ix. It was publicly proscribed, at its
first promulgation, by two ever-to-be-remembered Popes, Leo
III and John VIII, the latter of whom, in his epistle to the
blessed Photius, classes with Judas those who first brought
the interpolation into the Creed.

x. It has been condemned by many Holy
Councils of the four Patriarchs of the East.

xi. It was subjected to anathema, as a
novelty and augmentation of the Creed, by the eighth
Ecumenical Council, congregated at Constantinople for the
pacification of the Eastern and Western Churches.

xii. As soon as it was introduced into the
Churches of the West it brought forth disgraceful fruits,
bringing with it, little by little, other novelties, for the
most part contrary to the express commands of our Savior in
the Gospelcommands which till its entrance into the
Churches were closely observed. Among these novelties may be
numbered sprinkling instead of baptism, denial of the divine
Cup to the Laity, elevation of one and the same bread broken,
the use of wafers, unleavened instead of real bread, the
disuse of the Benediction in the Liturgies, even of the
sacred Invocation of the All-holy and Consecrating Spirit,
the abandonment of the old Apostolic Mysteries of the Church,
such as not anointing baptized infants, or their not
receiving the Eucharist, the exclusion of married men from
the Priesthood, the infallibility of the Pope and his claim
as Vicar of Christ, and the like. Thus it was that the
interpolation led to the setting aside of the old Apostolic
pattern of well nigh all the Mysteries and all doctrine, a
pattern which the ancient, holy, and orthodox Church of Rome
kept, when she was the most honored part of the Holy,
Catholic and Apostolic Church.

xiii. It drove the theologians of the West,
as its defenders, since they had no ground either in
Scripture or the Fathers to countenance heretical teachings,
not only into misrepresentations of the Scriptures, such as
are seen in none of the Fathers of the Holy Catholic Church,
but also into adulterations of the sacred and pure writings
of the Fathers alike of the East and West.

xiv. It seemed strange, unheard of, and
blasphemous, even to those reputed Christian communions,
which, before its origin, had been for other just causes for
ages cut off from the Catholic fold.

xv. It has not yet been even plausibly
defended out of the Scriptures, or with the least reason out
of the Fathers, from the accusations brought against it,
notwithstanding all the zeal and efforts of its supporters.
The doctrine bears all the marks of error arising out of its
nature and peculiarities. All erroneous doctrine touching the
Catholic truth of the Blessed Trinity, and the origin of the
divine Persons, and the subsistence of the Holy Ghost, is and
is called heresy, and they who so hold are deemed heretics,
according to the sentence of St. Damasus, Pope of Rome, who
says: "If any one rightly holds concerning the Father
and the Son, yet holds not rightly of the Holy Ghost, he is
an heretic" (Cath. Conf. of Faith which Pope Damasus
sent to Paulinus, Bishop of Thessalonica). Wherefore the One,
Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church, following in the steps
of the holy Fathers, both Eastern and Western, proclaimed of
old to our progenitors and again teaches today synodically,
that the said novel doctrine of the Holy Ghost proceeding
from the Father and the Son is essentially heresy, and its
maintainers, whoever they be, are heretics, according to the
sentence of Pope St. Damasus, and that the congregations of
such are also heretical, and that all spiritual communion in
worship of the orthodox sons of the Catholic Church with such
is unlawful. Such is the force of the seventh Canon of the
third Ecumenical Council.

6. This heresy, which has united to itself
many innovations, as has been said, appeared about the middle of
the seventh century, at first and secretly, and then under
various disguises, over the Western Provinces of Europe, until by
degrees, creeping along for four or five centuries, it obtained
precedence over the ancient orthodoxy of those parts, through the
heedlessness of Pastors and the countenance of Princes. Little by
little it overspread not only the hitherto orthodox Churches of
Spain, but also the German, and French, and Italian Churches,
whose orthodoxy at one time was sounded throughout the world,
with whom our divine Fathers such as the great Athanasius and
heavenly Basil conferred, and whose sympathy and fellowship with
us until the seventh Ecumenical Council, preserved unharmed the
doctrine of the Catholic and Apostolic Church. But in process of
time, by envy of the devil, the novelties respecting the sound
and orthodox doctrine of the Holy Ghost, the blasphemy of whom
shall not be forgiven unto men either in this world or the next,
according to the saying of our Lord (Matt. xii. 32), and others
that succeeded respecting the divine Mysteries, particularly that
of the world-saving Baptism, and the Holy Communion, and the
Priesthood, like prodigious births, overspread even Old Rome; and
thus sprung, by assumption of special distinctions in the Church
as a badge and title, the Papacy. Some of the Bishops of that
City, styled Popes, for example Leo III and John VIII, did
indeed, as has been said, denounce the innovation, and published
the denunciation to the world, the former by those silver plates,
the latter by his letter to the holy Photius at the eighth
Ecumenical Council, and another to Sphendopulcrus, by the hands
of Methodius, Bishop of Moravia. The greater part, however, of
their successors, the Popes of Rome, enticed by the antisynodical
privileges offered them for the oppression of the Churches of
God, and finding in them much worldly advantage, and "much
gain," and conceiving a Monarchy in the Catholic Church and
a monopoly of the gifts of the Holy Ghost, changed the ancient
worship at will, separating themselves by novelties from the old
received Christian Polity. Nor did they cease their endeavors, by
lawless projects (as veritable history assures us), to entice the
other four Patriarchates into their apostasy from Orthodoxy, and
so subject the Catholic Church to the whims and ordinances of
men.

7. Our illustrious predecessors and fathers,
with united labor and counsel, seeing the evangelical doctrine
received from the Fathers to be trodden under foot, and the robe
of our Savior woven from above to be torn by wicked hands, and
stimulated by fatherly and brotherly love, wept for the
desolation of so many Christians for whom Christ died. They
exercised much zeal and ardor, both synodically and individually,
in order that the orthodox doctrine of the Holy Catholic Church
being saved, they might knit together as far as they were able
that which had been rent; and like approved physicians they
consulted together for the safety of the suffering member,
enduring many tribulations, and contempts, and persecutions, if
haply the Body of Christ might not be divided, or the definitions
of the divine and august Synods be made of none effect. But
veracious history has transmitted to us the relentlessness of the
Western perseverance in error. These illustrious men proved
indeed on this point the truth of the words of our holy father
Basil the sublime, when he said, from experience, concerning the
Bishops of the West, and particularly of the Pope: "They
neither know the truth nor endure to learn it, striving against
those who tell them the truth, and strengthening themselves in
their heresy" (to Eusebius of Samosata). Thus, after a first
and second brotherly admonition, knowing their impenitence,
shaking them off and avoiding them, they gave them over to their
reprobate mind. "War is better than peace, apart from
God," as said our holy father Gregory, concerning the
Arians. From that time there has been no spiritual communion
between us and them; for they have with their own hands dug deep
the chasm between themselves and Orthodoxy.

8. Yet the Papacy has not on this account
ceased to annoy the peaceful Church of God, but sending out
everywhere so-called missionaries, men of reprobate minds, it compasses
land and sea to make one proselyte, to deceive one of the
Orthodox, to corrupt the doctrine of our LORD, to adulterate, by
addition, the divine Creed of our holy Faith, to prove the
Baptism which God gave us superfluous, the communion of the Cup
void of sacred efficacy, and a thousand other things which the
demon of novelty dictated to the all-daring Schoolmen of the
Middle Ages and to the Bishops of the elder Rome, venturing all
things through lust of power. Our blessed predecessors and
fathers, in their piety, though tried and persecuted in many ways
and means, within and without, directly and indirectly, "yet
confident in the LORD," were able to save and transmit to us
this inestimable inheritance of our fathers, which we too, by the
help of God, will transmit as a rich treasure to the generations
to come, even to the end of the world. But notwithstanding this,
the Papists do not cease to this day, nor will cease, according
to wont, to attack Orthodoxy,a daily living reproach which
they have before their eyes, being deserters from the faith of
their fathers. Would that they made these aggressions against the
heresy which has overspread and mastered the West. For who doubts
that had their zeal for the overthrow of Orthodoxy been employed
for the overthrow of heresy and novelties, agreeable to the
God-loving counsels of Leo III and John VIII, those glorious and
last Orthodox Popes, not a trace of it, long ago, would have been
remembered under the sun, and we should now be saying the same
things, according to the Apostolic promise. But the zeal of those
who succeeded them was not for the protection of the Orthodox
Faith, in conformity with the zeal worthy of all remembrance
which was in Leo III., now among the blessed.

9. In a measure the aggressions of the later
Popes in their own persons had ceased, and were carried on only
by means of missionaries. But lately, Pius IX., becoming Bishop
of Rome and proclaimed Pope in 1847, published on the sixth of
January, in this present year, an Encyclical Letter addressed to
the Easterns, consisting of twelve pages in the Greek version,
which his emissary has disseminated, like a plague coming from
without, within our Orthodox Fold. In this Encyclical, he
addresses those who at different times have gone over from
different Christian Communions, and embraced the Papacy, and of
course are favorable to him, extending his arguments also to the
Orthodox, either particularly or without naming them; and, citing
our divine and holy Fathers (p. 3, 1.14-18; p. 4, 1.19; p. 9,
1.6; and pp. 17, 23), he manifestly calumniates them and us their
successors and descendants: them, as if they admitted readily the
Papal commands and rescripts without question because issuing
from the Popes is undoubted arbiters of the Catholic Church; us,
as unfaithful to their examples (for thus he trespasses on the
Fold committed to us by God), as severed from our Fathers, as
careless of our sacred trusts, and of the soul's salvation of our
spiritual children. Usurping as his own possession the Catholic
Church of Christ, by occupancy, as he boasts, of the Episcopal
Throne of St. Peter, he desires to deceive the more simple into
apostasy from Orthodoxy, choosing for the basis of all
theological instruction these paradoxical words (p. 10, 1.29):
"nor is there any reason why ye refuse a return to the true
Church and Communion with this my holy Throne."

10. Each one of our brethren and sons in
Christ who have been piously brought up and instructed, wisely
regarding the wisdom given him from God, will decide that the
words of the present Bishop of Rome, like those of his
schismatical predecessors, are not words of peace, as he affirms
(p. 7,1.8), and of benevolence, but words of deceit and guile,
tending to self-aggrandizement, agreeably to the practice of his
antisynodical predecessors. We are therefore sure, that even as
heretofore, so hereafter the Orthodox will not be beguiled. For
the word of our LORD is sure (John x. 5), A stranger will they
not follow, but flee from him, for they know not the voice of
strangers.

11. For all this we have esteemed it our
paternal and brotherly need, and a sacred duty, by our present
admonition to confirm you in the Orthodoxy you hold from your
forefathers, and at the same time point out the emptiness of the
syllogisms of the Bishop of Rome, of which he is manifestly
himself aware. For not from his Apostolic Confession does he
glorify his Throne, but from his Apostolic Throne seeks to
establish his dignity, and from his dignity, his Confession. The
truth is the other way. The Throne of Rome is esteemed that of
St. Peter by a single tradition, but not from Holy Scripture,
where the claim is in favor of Antioch, whose Church is therefore
witnessed by the great Basil (Ep. 48 Athan.) to be "the most
venerable of all the Churches in the world." Still more, the
second Ecumenical Council, writing to a Council of the West (to
the most honorable and religious brethren and fellow-servants,
Damasus, Ambrose, Britto, Valerian, and others), witnesseth,
saying: "The oldest and truly Apostolic Church of Antioch,
in Syria, where first the honored name of Christians was
used." We say then that the Apostolic Church of Antioch had
no right of exemption from being judged according to divine
Scripture and synodical declarations, though truly venerated for
the throne of St. Peter. But what do we say? The blessed Peter,
even in his own person, was judged before all for the truth of
the Gospel, and, as Scripture declares, was found blamable and
not walking uprightly. What opinion is to be formed of those who
glory and pride themselves solely in the possession of his
Throne, so great in their eyes? Nay, the sublime Basil the great,
the Ecumenical teacher of Orthodoxy in the Catholic Church, to
whom the Bishops of Rome are obliged to refer us (p. 8, 1.31),
has clearly and explicitly above ( 7) shown us what estimation
we ought to have of the judgments of the inaccessible
Vatican:"They neither," he says, "know the
truth, nor endure to learn it, striving against those who tell
them the truth, and strengthening themselves in their
heresy." So that these our holy Fathers whom his Holiness
the Pope, worthily admiring as lights and teachers even of the
West, accounts as belonging to us, and advises us (p. 8) to
follow, teach us not to judge Orthodoxy from the holy Throne, but
the Throne itself and him that is on the Throne by the sacred
Scriptures, by Synodical decrees and limitations, and by the
Faith which has been preached, even the Orthodoxy of continuous
teaching. Thus did our Fathers judge and condemn Honorius, Pope
of Rome, and Dioscorus, Pope of Alexandria, and Macedonius and
Nestorius, Patriarchs of Constantinople, and Peter Gnapheus,
Patriarch of Antioch, with others. For if the abomination of
desolation stood in the Holy Place, why not innovation and
heresy upon a holy Throne? Hence is exhibited in a brief compass
the weakness and feebleness of the efforts in behalf of the
despotism of the Pope of Rome. For, unless the Church of Christ
was founded upon the immovable rock of St. Peters
Confession, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the Living
God (which was the answer of the Apostles in common, when the
question was put to them, Whom say ye that I am? (Matt.
xvi. 15,) as the Fathers, both Eastern and Western, interpret the
passage to us), the Church was built upon a slippery foundation,
even on Cephas himself, not to say on the Pope, who, after
monopolizing the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven, has made such an
administration of them as is plain from history. But our divine
Fathers, with one accord, teach that the sense of the
thrice-repeated command, Feed my sheep, implied no
prerogative in St. Peter over the other Apostles, least of all in
his successors. It was a simple restoration to his Apostleship,
from which he had fallen by his thrice-repeated denial. St. Peter
himself appears to have understood the intention of the
thrice-repeated question of our Lord: Lovest thou Me, and more,
and than these?. (John xxi. 16;) for, calling to mind
the words, Thou all shall be offended because of Thee, yet
will 1 never be offended (Matt. xxvi. 33), he wasgrieved
because He said unto him the third time, Lovest thou Me? But
his successors, from self-interest, understand the expression as
indicative of St. Peter's more ready mind.

12. His Holiness the Pope says (p. viii.
1.12.) that our LORD said to Peter (Luke xxii. 32), I have
prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not: and when thou art
converted, strengthen thy brethren. Our LORD so prayed
because Satan had sought to overthrow the faith of all the
disciples, but the LORD allowed him Peter only, chiefly because
he had uttered words of boasting, and justified himself above the
rest (Matt. xxvi. 33): Though all shall be offended, because
of thee, yet will I never be offended. The permission to
Satan was but temporary. He began to curse and to swear: I
know not the man. Soweak is human nature, left to
itself. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak. It
was but temporary, that, coming again to himself by his return in
tears of repentance, he might the rather strengthen his brethren
who had neither perjured themselves nor denied. Oh! the wise
judgment of the LORD! How divine and mysterious was the last
night of our Savior upon earth! That sacred Supper is believed to
be consecrated to this day in every Church: This do in
remembrance of me (Luke xxii. 19), and As often asye
eat this bread and drink this cup, ye do show the LORD's death
till he come (1 Cor. xi. 26). Of the brotherly love thus
earnest1y commended to us by the common Master, saying, By
this shall all men know that ye are my disciple, if ye have love
one to another (John xiii. 35), have the Popes first broken
the stamp and seal, supporting and receiving heretical novelties,
contrary to the things delivered to us and canonically confirmed
by our Teachers and Fathers in common. This love acts at this day
with power in the souls of Christian people, and particularly in
their leaders. We boldly avow before God and men, that the prayer
of our Savior (p. ix. l.43) to God and His Father for the common
love and unity of Christians in the One Holy Catholic and
Apostolic Church, in which we believe, that they may be one,
ever as we are one (John xvii. 22), worketh in us no less
than in his Holiness. Our brotherly love and zeal meet that of
his Holiness, with only this difference, that in us it worketh
for the covenanted preservation of the pure, undefiled, divine,
spotless, and perfect Creed of the Christian Faith, in conformity
to the voice of the Gospel and the decrees of the seven holy
Ecumenical Synods and the teachings of the ever-existing Catholic
Church: but worketh in his Holiness to prop and strengthen the
authority and dignity of them that sit on the Apostolic Throne,
and their new doctrine. Behold then, the head and front, so to
speak, of all the differences and disagreements that have
happened between us and them, and the middle wall of partition,
which we hope will be taken away in the time of is Holiness, and
by the aid of his renowned wisdom, according to the promise of
God (St. John x. 16): "Other sheep I have which are not
of this fold: them also 1 must bring and they shall hear my voice
(Who proceedeth from the Father "). Let it
be said then, in the third place, that if it be supposed,
according to the words of his Holiness, that this prayer of our
LORD for Peter when about to deny and perjure himself, remained
attached and united to the Throne of Peter, and is transmitted
with power to those who from time to time sit upon it, although,
as has before been said, nothing contributes to confirm the
opinion (as we are strikingly assured from the example of the
blessed Peter himself, even after the descent of the Holy Ghost,
yet are we convinced from the words of our LORD, that the time
will come when that divine prayer concerning the denial of Peter,
"that his faith might not fail for ever" will operate
also in some one of the successors of his Throne, who will also
weep, as he did, bitterly, and being sometime converted will
strengthen us, his brethren, still more in the Orthodox
Confession, which we hold from our forefathers;and would
that his Holiness might be this true successor of the blessed
Peter! To this our humble prayer, what hinders that we should add
our sincere and hearty Counsel in the name of the Holy Catholic
Church? We dare not say, as does his Holiness (p. x. 1.22), that
it should be done "without any delay;" but without
haste, utter mature consideration, and also, if need be, after
consultation with the more wise, religious, truth-loving, and
prudent of the Bishops, Theologians, and Doctors, to be found at
the present day, by God's good Providence, in every nation of the
West.

13. His Holiness says that the Bishop of
Lyons, St. Irenaeus, writes in praise of the Church of Rome:
"That the whole Church, namely, the faithful from
everywhere, must come together in that Church, because of its
Primacy, in which Church the tradition, given by the Apostles,
has in all respects been observed by the faithful
everywhere." Although this saint says by no means what the
followers of the Vatican would make out, yet even granting their
interpretation, we reply: Who denies that the ancient Roman
Church was Apostolic and Orthodox? None of us will question that
it was a model of orthodoxy. We will specially add, for its
greater praise, from the historian Sozomen (Hist. Eccl. lib. iii.
cap. 12), the passage, which his Holiness has overlooked,
respecting the mode by which for a time she was enabled to
preserve the orthodoxy which we praise:"For, as
everywhere," saith Sozomen, "the Church throughout the
West, being guided purely by the doctrines of the Fathers, was
delivered from contention and deception concerning these
things." Would any of the Fathers or ourselves deny her
canonical privilege in the rank of the hierarchy, so long as
she was guided purely by the doctrines of the Fathers, walking
by the plain rule of Scripture and the holy Synods! But at
present we do not find preserved in her the dogma of the Blessed
Trinity according to the Creed of the holy Fathers assembled
first in Nicea and afterwards in Constantinople, which the other
five Ecumenical Councils confessed and confirmed with such
anathemas on those who adulterated it in the smallest particular,
as if they had thereby destroyed it. Nor do we find the
Apostolical pattern of holy Baptism, nor the Invocation of the
consecrating Spirit upon the holy elements: but we see in that
Church the eucharistic Cup, heavenly drink, considered
superfluous, (what profanity!) and very many other things,
unknown not only to our holy Fathers, who were always entitled
the catholic, clear rule and index of Orthodoxy, as his Holiness,
revering the truth, himself teaches (p. vi), but also unknown to
the ancient holy Fathers of the West. We see that very primacy,
for which his Holiness now contends with all his might, as did
his predecessors, transformed from a brotherly character and
hierarchical privilege into a lordly superiority. What then is to
be thought of his unwritten traditions, if the written have
undergone such a change and alteration for the worse ? Who is so
bold and confident in the dignity of the Apostolic Throne, as to
dare to say that if our holy Father, Sr. Irenaeus, were alive
again, seeing it was fallen from the ancient and primitive
teaching in so many most essential and catholic articles of
Christianity, he would not be himself the first to oppose the
novelties and self-sufficient constitutions of that Church which
was lauded by him as guided purely by the doctrines of the
Fathers? For instance, when he saw the Roman Church not only
rejecting from her Liturgical Canon, according to the suggestion
of the Schoolmen, the very ancient and Apostolic invocation of
the Consecrating Spirit, and miserably mutilating the Sacrifice
in its most essential part, but also urgently hastening to cut it
out from the Liturgies of other Christian Communions
also,his Holiness slanderously asserting, in a manner so
unworthy of the Apostolic Throne on which he boasts himself, that
it "crept in after t.he division between the East and
West" (p. xi. 1.11)what would not the holy Father say
respecting this novelty ? Irenaeus assures us (lib. iv. c. 34)
"that bread, from the ground, receiving the evocation of
God, is no longer common bread," etc., meaning by
"evocation" invocation: for that Irenaeus
believed the Mystery of the Sacrifice to be consecrated by means
of this invocation is especially remarked even by Franciscus
Feu-Ardentius, of the order of popish monks called Minorites, who
in 1639 edited the writings of that saint with comments, who says
(lib. i. c. 18, p. 114,) that Irenaeus teaches "that the
bread and mixed cup become the true Body and Blood of Christ by
the words of invocation." Or, hearing of the vicarial and
appellate jurisdiction of the Pope, what would not the Saint say,
who, for a small and almost indifferent question concerning the
celebration of Easter (Euseb. Eccl. Hist. v. 26), so boldly and
victoriously opposed and defeated the violence of Pope Victor in
the free Church of Christ? Thus he who is cited by his Holiness
as a witness of the primacy of the Roman Church, shows that its
dignity is not that of a lordship, nor even appellate, to which
St. Peter himself was never ordained, but is a brotherly
privilege in the Catholic Church, and an honor assigned the Popes
on account of the greatness and privilege of the City. Thus,
also, the fourth Ecumenical Council, for the preservation of the
gradation in rank of Churches canonically established by the
third Ecumenical Council (Canon 8),following the second
(Canon 3), as that again followed the first (Canon 6), which
called the appellate jurisdiction of the Pope over the West a Custom,thus
uttered its determination: "On account of that City being
the Imperial City, the Fathers have with reason given it
prerogatives" (Canon 28). Here is nothing said of the Pope's
special monopoly of the Apostolicity of St. Peter, still less of
a vicarship in Rome's Bishops, and an universal Pastorate. This
deep silence in regard to such great privilegesnor only so,
but the reason assigned for the primacy, not "Feed my
sheep," not "On this rock will I build my
Church," but simply old Custom, and the City being the
Imperial City; and these things, not from the LORD, but from the
Fatherswill seem, we are sure, a great paradox to his
Holiness entertaining other ideas of his prerogatives. The
paradox will be the greater, since, as we shall see, he greatly
honors the said fourth Ecumenical Synod as one to be found a
witness for his Throne; and St. Gregory, the eloquent, called the
Great (lib. i. Ep. 25), was wont to speak of the four (Ecumenical
Councils [not the Roman See] as the four Gospels, and the
four-sided stone on which the Catholic Church is built.

14. His Holiness says (p. ix. 1.12) that the
Corinthians, divided among themselves, referred the matter to
Clement, Pope of Rome, who wrote to them his decision on the
case; and they so prized his decision that they read it in the
Churches. But this event is a very weak support for the Papal
authority in the house of God. For Rome being then the center of
the Imperial Province and the chief City, in which the Emperors
lived, it was proper that any question of importance, as history
shows that of the Corinthians to have been, should be decided
there, especially if one of the contending parties ran thither
for external aid: as is done even to this day. The Patriarchs of
Alexandria, Antioch, and Jerusalem, when unexpected points of
difficulty arise, write to the Patriarch of Constantinople,
because of its being the seat of Empire, as also on account of
its synodical privileges; and if this brotherly aid shall rectify
that which should be rectified, it is well; but if not, the
matter is reported to the province, according to the established
system. But this brotherly agreement in Christian faith is not
purchased by the servitude of the Churches of God. Let this be
our answer also to the examples of a fraternal and proper
championship of the privileges of Julius and Innocent Bishops of
Rome, by St. Athanasius the Great and St. John Chrysostom,
referred to by his Holiness (p. ix. 1. 6,17), for which their
successors now seek to recompense us by adulterating the divine
Creed. Yet was Julius himself indignant against some for "
disturbing the Churches by not maintaining the doctrines of
Nice" (Soz. Hist. Ec. lib. iii. c. 7), and threatening (id.)
excommunication, "if they ceased not their
innovations." In the case of the Corinthians, moreover, it
is to be remarked that the Patriarchal Thrones being then but
three, Rome was the nearer and more accessible to the
Corinthians, to which, therefore, it was proper to have resort.
In all this we see nothing extraordinary, nor any proof of the
despotic power of the Pope in the free Church of God.

15. But, finally, his Holiness says (p. ix.
l.12) that the fourth Ecumenical Council (which by mistake he
quite transfers from Chalcedon to Carthage), when it read the
epistle of Pope Leo I, cried out, "Peter has thus spoken by
Leo." It was so indeed. But his Holiness ought not to
overlook how, and after what examination, our fathers cried out,
as they did, in praise of Leo. Since however his Holiness,
consulting brevity, appears to have omitted this most necessary
point, and the manifest proof that an Ecumenical Council is not
only above the Pope but above any Council of his, we will explain
to the public the matter as it really happened. Of more than six
hundred fathers assembled in the Counci1 of Chalcedon, about two
hundred of the wisest were appointed by the Council to examine
both as to language and sense the said epistle of Leo; nor only
so, but to give in writing and with their signatures their own
judgment upon it, whether it were orthodox or not. These, about
two hundred judgments and resolution on the epistle, as chiefly
found in the Fourth Session of the said holy Council in such
terms as the following:"Maximus of Antioch in Syria
said: 'The epistle of the holy Leo, Archbishop of Imperial Rome,
agrees with the decisions of the three hundred and eighteen holy
fathers at Nice, and the hundred and fifty at Constantinople,
which is new Rome, and with the faith expounded at Ephesus by the
most holy Bishop Cyril: and I have subscribed it."

And again:

"Theodoret,the most religious Bishop of
Cyrus: 'The epistle of the most holy Archbishop, the lord Leo,
agrees with the faith established at Nice by the holy and blessed
fathers, and with the symbol of faith expounded at Constantinople
by the hundred and fifty, and with the epistles of the blessed
Cyril. And accepting it, I have subscribed the said
epistle."'

And thus all in succession: "The epistle
corresponds," "the epistle is consonant,"the
epistle agrees in sense," and the like. After such great and
very severe scrutiny in comparing it with former holy Councils,
and a full conviction of the correctness of the meaning, and not
merely because it was the epistle of the Pope, they cried aloud,
ungrudgingly, the exclamation on which his Holiness now vaunts
himself: But if his Holiness had sent us statements concordant
and in unison with the seven holy Ecumenical Councils, instead of
boasting of the piety of his predecessors lauded by our
predecessors and fathers in an Ecumenical Council, he might
justly have gloried in his own orthodoxy, declaring his own
goodness instead of that of his fathers. Therefore let his
Holiness be assured, that if, even now, he will write us such
things as two hundred fathers on investigation and inquiry shall
find consonant and agreeing with the said former Councils, then,
we say, he shall hear from us sinners today, not only,
"Peter has so spoken," or anything of like honor, but
this also, "Let the holy hand be kissed which has wiped away
the tears of the Catholic Church."

16. And surely we have a right to expect from
the prudent forethought of his Holiness, a work so worthy the
true successor of St. Peter, of Leo I, and also of Leo III, who
for security of the orthodox faith engraved the divine Creed
unaltered upon imperishable platesa work which will unite
the churches of the West to the holy Catholic Church, in which
the canonical chief seat of his Holiness, and the seats of all
the Bishops of the West remain empty and ready to be occupied.
For the Catholic Church, awaiting the conversion of the shepherds
who have fallen off from her with their flocks, does not separate
in name only, those who have been privily introduced to the
rulership by the action of others, thus making little of the
Priesthood. But we are expecting the "word of
consolation," and hope that he, as wrote St. Basil to
St.Ambrose, Bishop of Milan (Epis. b6), will "tread again
the ancient footprints of the fathers." Not without great
astonishment have we read the said Encyclical letter to the
Easterns, in which we see with deep grief of soul his Holiness,
famed for prudence, speaking like his predecessors in schism,
words that urge upon us the adulteration of our pure holy Creed,
on which the Ecumenical Councils have set their seal; and doing
violence to the sacred Liturgies, whose heavenly structure alone,
and the names of those who framed them, and their tone of
reverend antiquity, and the stamp that was placed upon them by
the Seventh Ecumenical Synod (Act vi.), should have paralyzed
him, and made him to turn aside the sacrilegious and all-daring
hand that has thus smitten the King of Glory. From these things
we estimate into what an unspeakable labyrinth of wrong and
incorrigible sin of revolution the papacy has thrown even the
wiser and more godly Bishops of the Roman Church, so that, in
order to preserve the innocent, and therefore valued vicarial
dignity, as well as the despotic primacy and the things depending
upon it, they know no other means shall to insult the most divine
and sacred things, daring everything for that one end. Clothing
themselves, in words, with pious reverence for "the most
venerable antiquity" (p. xi. 1.16), in reality there
remains, within, the innovating temper; and yet his Holiness
really hears hard upon himself when he says that we "must
cast from us everything that has crept in among us since the
Separation," (!) while he and his have spread the poison of
their innovation even into the Supper of our LORD. His Holiness
evidently takes it for granted that in the Orthodox Church the
same thing has happened which he is conscious has happened in the
Church of Rome since the rise of the Papacy: to wit, a sweeping
change in all the Mysteries, and corruption from scholastic
subtleties, a reliance on which must suffice as an equivalent for
our sacred Liturgies and Mysteries and doctrines: yet all the
while, forsooth, reverencing our "venerable antiquity,"
and all this by a condescension entirely
Apostolic!"without," as he says, "troubling
us by any harsh conditions"! From such ignorance of the
Apostolic and Catholic food on which we live emanates another
sententious declaration of his (p. vii. 1. 22): "It is not
possible that unity of doctrine and sacred observance should be
preserved among you," paradoxically ascribing to us the very
misfortune from which he suffers at home; just as Pope Leo IX
wrote to the blessed Michael Cerularius, accusing the Greeks of
changing the Creed of the Catholic Church, without blushing
either for his own honor or for the truth ofhistory. We
are persuaded that if his Holiness will call to mind
ecclesiastical archaeology and history, the doctrine ofthe
holy Fathers and the old Liturgies of France and Spain, and the
Sacramentary of the ancient Roman Church, he will be struck with
surprise on finding how many other monstrous daughters, now
living, the Papacy has brought forth in the West: while
Orthodoxy, with us, has preserved the Catholic Church as an
incorruptible bride for her Bridegroom, although we have no
temporal power, nor, as his Holiness says, any sacred
"observances," but by the sole tie of love and
affection to a common Mother are bound together in the unity of a
faith sealed with the seven seals of the Spirit (Rev. v. 1), and
by the seven Ecumenical Councils, and in obedience to the Truth.
He will find, also, flow many modern papistical doctrines and
mysteries must be rejected as "commandments of men" in
order that the Church of the West, which has introduced all sorts
ofnovelties, may be changed back again to the immutable
Catholic Orthodox faith of our common fathers. As his Holiness
recognizes our common zeal in this faith, when he says (p. viii.
l.30), "let us take heed to the doctrine preserved by our
forefathers," so he does well in instructing us (l. 31) to
follow the old pontiffs and the faithful of the Eastern
Metropolitans. What these thought of the doctrinal fidelity of
the Archbishops of the elder Rome, and what idea we ought to have
of them in the Orthodox Church, and in what manner we ought to
receive their teachings, they have synodically given us an
example ( 15), and the sublime Basil has well interpreted it
( 7). As to the supremacy, since we are not setting forth a
treatise, let the same great Basil present the matter in a f'ew
words, "I preferred to address myself to Him who is Head
over them."

17. From all this, every one nourished in
sound Catholic doctrine, particularly his Holiness, must draw the
conclusion, how impious and anti-synodical it is to attempt the
alteration of our doctrine and liturgies and other divine offices
which are, and are proved to be, coeval with the preaching of
Christianity: for which reason reverence was always bestowed on
then, and they were confided in as pure even by the old orthodox
Popes themselves, to whom these things were an inheritance in
common with ourselves. How becoming and holy would be the mending
of the innovations, the time of whose entrance in the Church of
Rome we know in each case; for our illustrious fathers have
testified from time to time against each novelty. But there are
other reasons which should incline his Holiness to this change.
First, because those things that are ours were once venerable to
the Westerns, as having the same divine Offices and confessing
the same Creed; but the novelties were not known to our Fathers,
nor could they be shown in the writings of the orthodox Western
Fathers, nor as having their origin either in antiquity or
catholicity. Moreover, neither Patriarchs nor Councils could then
have introduced novelties amongst us, because the protector of
religion is the very body of the Church, even the people
themselves, who desire their religious worship to be ever
unchanged and of the same kind as that of their fathers: for as,
after the Schism, many of the Popes and Latinizing Patriarchs
made attempts that came to nothing even in the Western Church;
and as, from time to time, either by fair means or foul, the
Popes have commanded novelties for the sake of expediency (as
they have explained to our f'athers, although they were thus
dismembering the Body of Christ): so now again the Pope, for the
sake of a truly divine and most just expediency, forsooth (not
mending the nets, but himself rending the garment of the Savior),
dare to oppose the venerable things of antiquity,things
well fitted to preserve religion, as his Holiness confesses (p.
xi. l.16), and which he himself honors, as he says (lb. 1.16),
together with his predecessors, for he repeats that memorable
expression o one of those blessed predecessors (Celestine,
writing to the third Ecumenical Council): "Let novelty
cease to attack antiquity." And let the Catholic Church
enjoy this benefit from this so far blameless declaration of the
Popes. It must by all means be confessed, that in such his
attempt, even though Pius IX be eminent for wisdom and piety,
and, as he says, for zeal after Christian unity in the Catholic
Church, he will meet, within and without, with difficulties and
toils. And here we must put his Holiness in mind, if he will
excuse our boldness, of that portion of his letter (p. viii.
L.32), "That in things which relate to the confession of our
divine religion, nothing is to be feared, when we look to the
glory of Christ, and the reward which awaits us in eternal
life." It is incumbent on his Holiness to show before God
and man, that, as prime mover of the counsel which pleases God,
so is he a willing protector of the ill-treated evangelical and
synodical truth, even to the sacrifice of his own interests,
according to the Prophet (Is. lx. 17), A ruler in peace and
a bishop in righteousness. Sobe it! But until
there be this desired returning of the apostate Churches to the
body of the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church, of which Christ
is the Head (Eph. iv. 15), and each of us "members in
particular," all advice proceeding from them, and every
officious exhortation tending to the dissolution of our pure
faith handed down from the Fathers is condemned, as it ought to
be, synodically, not only as suspicious and to be eschewed, but
as impious and soul-destroying: and in this category, among the
first we place the said Encyclical to the Easterns from
Pope Pius IX, Bishop of the elder Rome; and such we proclaim it
to be in the Catholic Church.

18. Wherefore, beloved brethren and
fellow-ministers of our mediocrity, as always, so also now,
particularly on this occasion of the publication of the said
Encyclical, we hold it to be our inexorable duty, in accordance
with our patriarchal and synodical responsibility, in order that
none may be lost to the divine fold of the Catholic Orthodox
Church, the most holy Mother of us all, to encourage each other,
and to urge you that, reminding one another of the words and
exhortations of St. Paul to our holy predecessors when he
summoned them to Ephesus, we reiterate to each other: take
heed, therefore, unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over the
which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the Church
of God, which He hath purchased with His own Blood. For
know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in
among you not sparing the flock. Also of your own selves shall
men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after
them. Therefore,watch. (Acts xx.28-31.) Then our predecessors
and Fathers, hearing this divine charge, wept sore, and falling
upon his neck, kissed him. Come, then, and let us, brethren,
hearing him admonishing us with tears, fall in spirit, lamenting,
upon his neck, and, kissing him, comfort him by our own firm
assurance, that no one shall separate us from the love of Christ,
no one mislead us from evangelical doctrine, no one entice us
from the safe path of our fathers, as none was able to deceive
them, by any degree of zeal which they manifested, who from time
to time were raised up for this purpose by the tempter: so that
at last we shall hear from the Master: Well done, good and
faithful servant, receiving the end of our faith, even the
salvation of our souls, and of the reasonable flock over whom the
Holy Ghost has made us shepherds.

19. This Apostolic charge and exhortation we
have quoted for your sake, and address it to all the Orthodox
congregation, wherever they be found settled on the earth, to the
Priests and Abbots, to the Deacons and Monks, in a word, to all
the Clergy and godly People, the rulers and the ruled, the rich
and the poor, to parents and children, to teachers and scholars,
to the educated and uneducated, to masters and servants, that we
all, supporting and counseling each other, may be able to
stand against the wiles of the devil. For thus St. Peter the
Apostle exhorts us (1 Pet.): Be sober, be vigilant because
your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion walketh about,
seeking whom he may devour. Whom resist, steadfast in the faith.

20. For our faith, brethren, is not of men
nor by man, but by revelation of Jesus Christ, which the divine
Apostles preached, the holy Ecumenical Councils confirmed, the
greatest and wisest teachers of the world handed down in
succession, and the shed blood of the holy martyrs ratified. Let
us hold fast to the confession which we have received
unadulterated from such men, turning away from every novelty as a
suggestion of the devil. He that accepts a novelty reproaches
with deficiency the preached Orthodox Faith. But that Faith has
long ago been sealed in completeness, not to admit of diminution
or increase, or any change whatever; and he who dares to do, or
advise, or think of such a thing has already denied the faith of
Christ, has already of his own accord been struck with an eternal
anathema, for blaspheming the Holy Ghost as not having spoken
fully in the Scriptures and through the Ecumenical Councils. This
fearful anathema, brethren and sons beloved in Christ, we do not
pronounce today, but our Savior first pronounced it (Matt. xii.
32): Whosoever speaketh against the Holy Ghost, it
shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world, neither in the
world to come. St. Paul pronounced the same anathema (Gal. i.
6): I marvel that ye are so soon removed from Him that called
you into the grace of Christ, unto another Gospel: which
is not another; but there be some that trouble you, and would
pervert the Gospel of Christ. But though we, or an angel
from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you, than that which we
have preached unto you, let him be accursed. This same
anathema the Seven Ecumenical Councils and the whole choir of
God-serving fathers pronounced. All, therefore, innovating,
either by heresy or schism, have voluntarily clothed themselves,
according to the Psalm (cix. 18), ("with a curse
as with a garment,") whether they be Popes, or
Patriarchs, or Clergy, or Laity; nay, if any one, though an angel
from heaven, preach any other Gospel unto you than that ye have
received, let him be accursed. Thus our wise fathers, obedient to
the soul-saving words of St. Paul, were established firm and
steadfast in the faith handed down unbrokenly to them, and
preserved it unchanged and uncontaminate in the midst of so many
heresies, and have delivered it to us pure and undefiled, as it
came pure from the mouth of the first servants of the Word. Let
us, too, thus wise, transmit it, pure as we have received it, to
coming generations, altering nothing, that they may be, as we
are, full of confidence, and with nothing to be ashamed of when
speaking of the faith of their forefathers.

21. Therefore, brethren, and sons beloved in
the LORD, having purified your souls in obeying the truth (1Pet. i. 22), let us give the more earnest heed to the
things which we have heard, lest at any time we should let them
slip. (Heb. ii. 1.) The faith and confession we have received
is not one to be ashamed of, being taught in the Gospel from the
mouth of our LORD, witnessed by the holy Apostles, by the seven
sacred Ecumenical Councils, preached throughout the world,
witnessed to by its very enemies, who, before they apostatized
from orthodoxy to heresies, themselves held this same faith, or
at least their fathers and fathers' fathers thus held it. It is
witnessed to by continuous history, as triumphing over all the
heresies which have persecuted or now persecute it, as ye see
even to this day. The succession of our holy divine fathers and
predecessors beginning from the Apostles, and those whom the
Apostles appointed their successors, to this day, forming one
unbroken chain, and joining hand to hand, keep fast the sacred
inclosure of which the door is Christ, in which all the orthodox
Flock is fed in the fertile pastures of the mystical Eden, and
not in the pathless and rugged wilderness, as his Holiness
supposes (p. 7.1.12). Our Church holds the infallible and genuine
deposit of the Holy Scriptures, of the Old Testament a true and
perfect version, of the New the divine original itself. The rites
of the sacred Mysteries, and especially those of the divine
Liturgy, are the same glorious and heartquickening rites, handed
down from the Apostles. No nation, no Christian communion, can
boast of such Liturgies as those of James, Basil, Chrysostom. The
august Ecumenical Councils, those seven pillars of the house of
Wisdom, were organized in it and among us. This, our Church,
holds the originals of their sacred definitions. The Chief
Pastors in it, and the honorable Presbytery, and the monastic
Order, preserve the primitive and pure dignity of the first ages
of Christianity, in opinions, in polity, and even in the
simplicity of their vestments. Yes! verily, "grievous
wolves" have constantly attacked this holy fold, and are
attacking it now, as we see for ourselves, according to the
prediction of the Apostle, which shows that the true lambs of the
great Shepherd are folded in it; but that Church has sung and
shall sing forever: " They compassed me about; yea, they
compassed me about: but in the name of the Lord I will destroy
them (Ps. cxviii. l1). Let us add one reflection, a
painful one indeed, but useful in order to manifest and confirm
the truth of our words:All Christian nations whatsoever
that are today seen calling upon the Name of Christ (not
excepting either the West generally, or Rome herself, as we prove
by the catalogue of her earliest Popes), were taught the true
faith in Christ by our holy predecessors and fathers; and yet
afterwards deceitful men, many of whom were shepherds, and chief
shepherds too, of those nations, by wretched sophistries and
heretical opinions dared to defile, alas! the orthodoxy of those
nations, as veracious history informs us, and as St. Paul
predicted.

22. Therefore, brethren, and ye our
spiritual children, we acknowledge how great the favor and grace
which God has bestowed upon our Orthodox Faith, and on His One,
Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church, which, like a mother who is
unsuspected of her husband, nourishes us as children of whom she
is not ashamed, and who are excusable in our high-toned boldness
concerning the hope that is in us. But what shall we
sinners render to the LORD for all that He hath bestowed upon
us? Our bounteous LORD and God, who hath redeemed us by his
own Blood, requires nothing else of us but the devotion of our
whole soul and heart to the blameless, holy faith of our fathers,
and love and affection to the Orthodox Church, which has
regenerated us not with a novel sprinkling, but with the divine
washing of Apostolic Baptism. She it is that nourishes us,
according to the eternal covenant of our Savior, with His own
precious Body, and abundantly, as a true Mother, gives us to
drink of that precious Blood poured out for us and for the
salvation of the world. Let us then encompass her in spirit, as
the young their parent bird, wherever on earth we find ourselves,
in the north or south, or east, or west. Let us fix our our eyes
and thoughts upon her divine countenance and her most glorious
beauty. Let us take hold with both our hands on her shining robe
which the Bridegroom, "altogether lovely," has with His
own undefiled hands thrown around her, when He redeemed her from
the bondage of error, and adorned her as an eternal Bride for
Himself. Let us feel in our own souls the mutual grief of the
children-loving mother and the mother-loving children, when it is
seen that men of wolfish minds and making gain of souls are
zealous in plotting how they may lead her captive, or tear the
lambs from their mothers. Let us, Clergy as well as Laity,
cherish this feeling most intensely now, when the unseen
adversary of our salvation, combining his fraudful arts (p. xi.
1. 2-25), employs such powerful instrumentalities, and walketh
about everywhere, as saith St. Peter, seeking whom he may
devour; and when in this way, in which we walk peacefully and
innocently, he sets his deceitful snares.

23. Now, the God of peace, "that
brought again from the dead that great Shepherd of the
sheep," "He that keepeth Israel," who "shall
neither slumber nor sleep," "keep your hearts and
minds," "and direct your ways to every good work."

Peace and joy be with you in the LORD.

May, 1848, Indiction 6.

+ ANTHIMOS,
by the Mercy of God, Archbishop of Constantinople, new Rome, and
Ecumenical Patriarch, a beloved brother in Christ our God, and
suppliant.

+
HIEROTHEUS, by the Mercy of God, Patriarch of Alexandria and of
all Egypt, a beloved brother in Christ our God, and suppliant.

+
METHODIOS, by the Mercy of God, Patriarch of the great City of
God, Antioch, and of all Anatolia, a beloved brother in Christ
our God, and suppliant.

+ CYRIL, by
the Mercy of God, Patriarch of Jerusalem and of all Palestine, a
beloved brother in Christ our God, and suppliant.